John Minson Galt II Diary March 1862

John Minson Galt II Diary March 1862

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865

John Minson Galt II was born in Williamsburg, VA on 19 March 1819, the son of Alexander D. Galt and Mary Dorothea Galt. He followed in his paternal grandfather's [John Minson Galt I] footsteps, becoming medical superintendent of Eastern Lunatic Asylum [later the Eastern State Hospital] in 1841, at the age of 22. He was a member of the Virginia Medical Association and was one of the thirteen physicians who met in Phliadelphia to found the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane [the forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association]. Galt wrote several hundred papers throughout his lifetime, both on medical topics and botany. He consistently recommended (and sometimes implemented) changes in the care of medical patients, believing that "kindness" was the key component to medical care. Galt kept meticulous records and amassed a sizeable home library of leading European and American works on psychiatry. Galt never married, and died suddenly on 18 may 1862, at 43. Family rumor hints at opium addiction and death from an accidental overdose. Most sources agree that a contributing cause of his death was anxiety over the fate of his patients when, in May 1862, the Union army occupied Williamsburg, took over the hospital, and forbade him entry.

John Minson Galt II

Galt Family Papers (I), Mss. 78 G13, Box 16

Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary

March 1862

SCRC Civil War Transcription Project Volunteer

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Mss. 78 G13.10